1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus capable of autonomously moving according to a movement plan, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the functionality of robots is enhanced, robots have had more opportunities to carry a burden or guide a person to a destination, for example, and thus, there is an increasing demand for a technique that allows robots to move by avoiding contact with people around them. There has been proposed a technique that allows a robot to move by avoiding contact with a plurality of objects (obstacles) around it by taking into account the movement velocities of the objects (see “Planning and navigation by a mobile robot in the presence of multiple moving obstacles and their velocities”, Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol. 12, No. 7, pp. 1029-1037, 1994). According to this technique, in order to plan an optimum path for reaching a destination while avoiding contact between a robot and objects, prediction of the movement of each object and planning of a path that involves no contact between the robot and the objects based on the prediction are repeated in short cycles.